Chance to Study in Italy Sparked Experience of a Lifetime for Brook Clifford (2110 hits)
NKU Marketing + Communications intern Brook Clifford spent 12 days of her winter break overseas on an Education Abroad trip to Italy. The junior journalism major from Oldham County, Kentucky, took an English literature class while abroad and found an experience of a lifetime.
Upon her return, Brook told Inside NKU about her trip…
By Brook Clifford NKU Marketing + Communications Intern
In a pursuit of an experience I wouldn’t forget when leaving college, I signed up for a study abroad trip. For 12 days, and more 7,000 miles away from NKU, I was going to be wandering the streets of Rome and Florence in Italy. I signed up for an English Literature class because my major track doesn’t include much of them and I wanted to try something new.
I have had an absolutely incredible experience in the classrooms of NKU. I have learned about countless theories and delved into research, I have learned new techniques and ways of doing things. I have learned my path for the future. I have mostly learned about myself.
However, whenever I asked someone who had graduated college what they would change about their experience, all of them said it was studying abroad. I didn’t want to say that when I left college. I didn’t want to say I regretted anything.
So the day after Christmas, I boarded three different planes and almost a day later, I arrived in a completely foreign environment. I saw beautifully historical statues and paintings, learned some of the Italian language, learned more about the culture and history of a different place more than I ever thought I would know.
But how was this any different than a classroom? Don’t we have the opportunity to do the same things? Sure we do. So I started thinking about this while I was abroad. Was I missing the point? What was I really doing here? What was I actually supposed to be learning?
Our professor challenged us to find “it.” To find something that was genuinely life altering for us in a way we didn’t expect. I figured I would find “it” in a museum on the class track. But I really found “it” by putting down the map and getting wonderfully lost. I found it in the ancient streets of Rome. I found it in interacting with native Italians. I found it in discovering a cathedral rooted in traditions and beauty. It didn’t matter that someone else had discovered all of this before — it was our opportunity to discover it now.
So I found it with a group of three friends during our free periods in these foreign cities. I found it in local cafes and through street vendors. I found it with the help of historical literature and beautiful art. I had found a place where everything was placed like a movie set. Everything worked cooperatively together, effortlessly. From the top of the Spanish Steps, I could see the streets of Rome for miles it seemed. I saw how the homeless intertwined with the million-dollar boutiques and how the gelato carts worked with the historical piazzas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”
So what’s the point? Well, I learned things about myself I never would have if I hadn’t made the leap out of a classroom desk onto the crowded streets of Florence. I found “it.” I will take this “it” and take it through life with me. I will carry the beautiful. And I challenge each and every one of NKU’s students to do the same.
